Month: August 2014

“Studying in Malaysia offers you the opportunity to acquire an internationally recognised qualification of your choice within an affordable budget. There are students from more than 100 countries studying in Malaysia, pursuing courses ranging from diplomas and degrees to Masters and PhDs at universities, colleges and foreign university branch campuses. Their choice of Malaysia as the place to acquire a globally-recognised academic qualification is a strong indicator of their confidence in the country as an education hub” (Education Malaysia Global Services 2012, pg. 1)

Over 100,000 overseas students in Malaysia have boarded with bringing the objectives, taking internationalized education for their careers, also preparing against the flow of the Era of Globalization; furthermore, there are thousands overseas students who are willing to consider and board for taking the globalized education in Malaysia with the cheaper costs compared to other developed countries where are widely known as the destination of education such as Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. In other words; the country, Malaysia is becoming famous nowadays as the destination of education hub, comparable to the other host countries as shown above.

On the other side, the Government of Malaysia is promoting the education industries to earn the independent profits from the source of education industries for earning foreign currencies, leading to fill the financial budget of the government; thus, all these are related to business without any exceptions at all.

Beyond all the known facts, the main objective of business is all about making profits; furthermore, the business is not about the charity work. Therefore, education is one of consistent leading to make profits. Which means, the internationalisation of higher education in Malaysia cannot be blamed for making profits; and, this was set to satisfy what consumers the students demand. Accordingly, the government of Malaysia is recently trying to innovate the education system of Malaysia to tempt students to abroad in Malaysia. For a reference, the Department of Education of Malaysia newly has founded and set-up the organization ‘Education Malaysia Global Services (abbreviated as EMGS)’ to fluently process the admissions and the visa applications of foreign students, admitting to the local institutions in Malaysia (however, reports directly indicate that there are the side-effects mainly caused by the foundation of EMGS, added unnecessary spends and costs; in the result, the overseas students face the problems).

The other efforts of Malaysian Government are as following below:

Adopting the standardized international qualifications such as GCE A-level and International Baccalaureate Diploma into the local institutions’ curriculums in Malaysia

The local-placed undergraduate and post-graduate programmes, collaborated with overseas institutions and universities

Foreign university branch campuses in Malaysia

Developing the foreigner-friendly environment in several cultural aspects

Investments to the education infrastructures

The advantages what the Malaysian Government earns are:

Improving the national image of Malaysia

Maximizing the government budget, independently sourced from the overseas students

The advantages what the overseas students get are:

Innovation of the educational infrastructures of Malaysia

The efforts, the internationalization of the higher education, planned and executed by the Government of Malaysia, mainly aim for maximizing the source of income; and, the writer believes these efforts will enhance the system of the higher education in Malaysia. However, to guarantee the efforts to the target ‘overseas students’, the government must carry them with maintaining and innovating the quality of higher education in Malaysia, not only following the incomes.